DELRAY BEACH – Could the United Nations become less of a laughing stock if diplomats elicited more laughter?
Writers at the British website Impackter think it couldn’t hurt.
Ahead of next month’s meeting of the UN’s General Assemble, the Impackter suggests that injecting humor into some discussions could help bridge divides and lead to worthwhile compromises.
In an attempt to lead the way, the authors characterized the they types of comedy that work well with different cultures. Asians respond to clever word play, according to the article. Africans enjoy storytelling. Americans can respond to just about anything – as long as it’s funny.
Maybe the authors are onto something. Maybe, rather than sending politicians and diplomats, the US should be sending the likes of Bill Barr, Gary Gulman and Jim Gaffigan to hash out some deals.
They couldn’t do any worse than what’s already being done – and it certainly would be more entertaining.
Today’s Stand-Up Spotlight also includes an update on cancel culture in England; a feature about how Zarna Garg ran away from an arranged marriage in India and later became a comedian in America; and news from Robin Williams’ widow that depression wasn’t what prompted him to take his life.
Not all these stories are funny, but they are interesting.
STAND-UP SPOTLIGHT – August 21, 2023
Humor Me!
In another month there will be a meeting of most nations on the planet at the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly. There will be speeches, committee meetings, and resolutions on all sorts of matters, with some items likely to approach near-universal consensus. What will not be either a central topic or rarely if ever mentioned or discussed, nor a world conference proposed, is the treatment of the “State of the World’s Humor”.
Different now than in the 1940s when the UN was founded is that we live in a much more interconnected world. With extensive social media, global informational access, and the arrival of generative artificial intelligence, this is a time when the UN is in need of greater support at the grassroots level, not just by international and country leaders.
Click here to view original web page at Humor Me!
Humourless scolds have taken over comedy
This week, Comedy Unleashed, a free-speech-themed stand-up comedy night, was expelled from the Leith Arches in Edinburgh, after revealing that its package show had a concealed member. And so, to no one’s great surprise, this year’s Edinburgh Fringe has been blighted by yet another activist-driven cancellation. Almost exactly a year to the day since the censor’s axe fell on comedian Jerry Sadowitz’s errant todger, another impudent inflorescence has been nipped, not so much in the bud as close to the root.
Click here to view original web page at Humourless scolds have taken over comedy
Robin Williams’ widow reveals what truly killed the comedian: ‘Depression didn’t kill Robin’
It’s been 9 years since Robin Williams left this plane, the comedian became a legend while he was still alive but his passing was unexpected as it was traumatic. His wife, Susan Schneider was there during the entire process in which Robin was losing himself at a rapid pace. Today, we know that Williams took his own life but not because he had a desire to cease existing. The autopsy report confirmed Robin Williams had a rare disease known as Lewy body dementia. Often misdiagnosed, LBD has multiple symptoms that emerge in the patient and often overwhelm them. When asked about her husband’s cause of death, Schneider was very clear.
How Zarna Garg found success as a comedian after leaving India to avoid an arranged marriage
Zarna Garg knows what it’s like to blow up your life and start over.
Today she’s a professional comedian with a successful tour, her own Amazon Prime special (One in a Billion) and a new podcast (The Zarna Garg Show), but she had to reinvent herself several times before finding her calling.
Her first transformation happened while she was still a teenager living in India. When she was just shy of 15, Garg’s mother suddenly passed away and, as the last of her siblings to leave home, her father demanded she immediately get married.
